1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to airbag mounting assemblies for vehicles and, more particularly, to an airbag mounting assembly for mounting a passenger airbag both to a crush pad and to a cowl cross bar using a pair of mounting brackets in a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Passenger airbags are safety devices for vehicles, which can protect passengers sitting in the passenger side of the front seat in case of a vehicle crash. The passenger airbag is typically installed in a crush pad provided in the front of a passenger compartment of a vehicle.
The passenger airbag is coupled to an airbag door separately or integrally combined with crush pad parts such that, when an airbag cushion is inflated with compressed gas, the airbag door must automatically open to allow the inflated airbag cushion to expand toward a passenger and the airbag must keep hinge units of the airbag door in an open state. Furthermore, to support the repulsive force generated by the expansion of the airbag cushion and to support the weight of the airbag module when the vehicle is running, the passenger airbag must be additionally mounted to a cowl cross bar, which is the rigid element of the crush pad.
FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B are views illustrating a conventional structure for mounting a passenger airbag in a vehicle.
Particularly, as shown in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B, to mount the conventional airbag in a crush pad, it is required to use various kinds of airbag mounting brackets.
For example, the conventional airbag must require a side bracket 16 for mounting an airbag module to the crush pad and both an airbag mounting bracket 12 and a cowl cross mounting bracket 13 for mounting the crush pad assembled with the airbag module to a cowl cross bar 20.
To mount the airbag module to the cowl cross bar 20 having a hollow tubular structure with a circular cross-section, a cowl cross mounting bracket 13 is primarily formed such that the shape of the cowl cross mounting bracket 13 corresponds to the profile of the cowl cross bar 20. Thereafter, the cowl cross mounting bracket 13 is welded to the cowl cross bar 20. Further, the end of the cowl cross mounting bracket 13 remote from the cowl cross bar 20 is provided with both a flat part and a nut 14 for locking the cowl cross mounting bracket 13 to the airbag mounting bracket 12 extending downwards from the airbag module. The lower end of the airbag mounting bracket 12 is locked to the flat part of the cowl cross mounting bracket 13 using a bolt 15. Thereafter, an airbag housing 11 having the side bracket 16 is mounted to the airbag mounting bracket 12.
However, the conventional airbag is problematic in that, because the airbag requires a plurality of brackets to improve the efficiency with which the airbag module is assembled to the cowl cross bar and is assembled to make contact with the circular shape of the cowl cross bar 20, the plurality of brackets increase the production cost and complicate the assembly process of the airbag, and require an excessively large installation space for the airbag. In other words, the space defined between the airbag module and the cowl cross bar is reduced due to the excessive number of brackets, so that it is difficult to secure a desired mounting flat part in the space. Furthermore, the two types of mounting brackets 12 and 13 overlap each other, so that, when downward impact is imposed on the airbag module assembled in the crush pad, there is a reduced space in which bracket deformation can absorb the impact energy. Thus, it is required to provide an airbag mounting structure capable of solving the problems experienced in the conventional airbag mounting structure and of reducing the number of parts of the structure.
Furthermore, to actuate the airbag in case of a vehicle crash, it is required to supply electricity to an inflator so as to ignite the inflator. Thus, a wire harness for supplying electricity to the inflator must be coupled to a connector. To couple the wire harness to the connector, it is necessary to define a work space at a location below the airbag module. In a conventional method, a lead wire is installed in the inflator such that the wire harness can be coupled to the connector at a desired location other than a location below the airbag module, so that the conventional method requires an additional lead wire. However, in the present invention, the mounting brackets are moved to opposite sides of the airbag module, so that a desired work space can be defined at a location below the airbag module, thus solving the problem of the necessity of the additional lead wire.
The above description of the related art has been intended to promote comprehension of the background of the present invention, and is not to be interpreted as a conventional technique well-known to those skilled in the art.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.